Family
History of Prostate Cancer does not affect
some treatment outcomes
Newswise — In a first of its kind study, a
first-degree family history of prostate
cancer has no impact on the treatment
outcomes of prostate cancer patients treated
with brachytherapy (also called seed
implants), and patients with this type of
family history have clinical and pathologic
characteristics similar to men with no
family history at all, according to a
January 1 study in the International Journal
of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the
official journal of the American Society for
Radiation Oncology.
“This information is relevant for both
physicians and patients with new diagnoses
as they embark on complex treatment
decisions,” Christopher A. Peters, M.D.,
lead author of the study and a radiation
oncologist at Northeast Radiation Oncology
Center in Dunmore, Pa. (chief resident at
Mount Sinai School of Medicine at the time
of the study), said.
“Now
patients with a family history of prostate
cancer can be confident that they have the
same outcomes as patients with sporadic
disease, regardless of the treatment
modality they chose.”
According to the American Cancer Society,
prostate cancer is the most common cancer in
men behind skin cancer.
Many patients diagnosed with prostate cancer
have some type of family history of the
disease and men with a family history do
have an increased risk of developing the
disease, but there is conflicting data on
how family history impacts treatment
outcomes.
In the study, researchers at the Departments
of Radiation Oncology and Urology at the
Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York
sought to determine if having a familial
history of prostate cancer, which is defined
as a clustering of prostate cancer cases
within a family, had an impact on the
prognosis of men treated with brachytherapy
for clinically localized prostate cancer
patients.
Researchers followed 1,738 prostate cancer
patients, of which 187 had a family history
of prostate cancer in a first-degree
relative, for a median follow-up time of 60
months.
They found that in the low-, intermediate-
and high-risk groups, a family history of
prostate cancer had little to no prognostic
significance in men treated with
brachytherapy.
Previous studies done with prostate cancer
patients receiving external beam radiation
therapy or radical prostatectomy had similar
findings.
ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology
society in the world, with more than 10,000
members who specialize in treating patients
with radiation therapies.
As the leading organization in radiation
oncology, biology and physics, the Society
is dedicated to improving patient care
through education, clinical practice,
advancement of science and advocacy.
For more information on radiation therapy,
visit www.rtanswers.org. To learn more about
ASTRO, visit
www.astro.org
.
